Bengaluru: Scaling up his attack on Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman over the ongoing Rafale fighter jet controversy, Congress president, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "helping businessman Anil Ambani by destroying Hindustan Aeronautics Limited", which he described as a "strategic asset".
He told HAL's former and serving employees to loud cheers, "Rafale is your right, you are a 78-year-old company."
Speaking to reporters after his interaction with HAL employees at crowded Minsk Square against the backdrop of a Tejas fighter, within a stone's throw of HAL headquarters, Mr Gandhi, when asked whether he was implying that there was corruption in the Rafale deal said, "I am not implying, I am saying very clearly that corruption has taken place."
Mr Modi helps his capitalist friend Anil Ambani whose group is debt ridden to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore, he said. "Kickbacks have been exchanged. Rs 30,000 crore has been snatched from these (HAL) people and have been given to Mr Ambani. Youth of Bengaluru and country must know this, that thousands of superb skilled jobs have been snatched away from them to help Mr Ambani," he said. HAL is a strategic asset in aerospace, not an ordinary or regular company, he added.
Mr. Gandhi told reporters that Ms. Sitharaman talked about lack of experience of HAL, but had not said anything about the lack of experience of Anil Ambani, "who has never built a plane in his life."
"HAL has no debt, he has Rs 45,000 crore of debt. HAL has been working for 78 years. His company has been working for 12 days. So she has no comment about the person who got the contract, or HAL's experience," he said and demanded to know why the order was being taken away from HAL when it had all the experience.
"Why hasn't the work being given to them? Why is HAL being destroyed by Anil Ambani... that is the question." "So the first thing is that they expect an apology from the Defence Minister for insulting HAL. We understand that the Defence Minister is not going to apologise," he said. On alleged corruption, he said HAL was one of the "modern temples" of India and it was being destroyed "because of corruption that Narendra Modi is doing to help Anil Ambani. We are here to defend the people who are defending the nation. From the government, we have to defend HAL," he said.
In response to another question, Mr Gandhi charged that Ms Sitharaman has gone to France just to cover this up. "She is lying, when she is talking about the Rafale deal. France's former president has already on the record stating that Mr Modi himself and union government was instrumental in getting contract for Mr Ambani. Even the media in France has exposed the Dassault internal document, which clearly indicts Mr Modi and Mr Ambani. Therefore, Ms Sitharaman's cover-up efforts may not yield desired results as already truth is out in the public," he chided. Snapping at question on UPA's role, Mr Gandhi said, "When the UPA was signing the deal, the HAL was very much part of the contract proposal, hence, first media must learn to get its facts right on these issue."
Cleverly evading direct response to the future of contract between Dassault with the Ambani, he quickly added that if the UPA comes to power, the Congress will always protect interests of nation building institutes like HAL, NAL and DRDO. Mr Gandhi asserted that the Congress will take this issue to every nook and corner of this country and expose them further.
HAL regrets politicisation
Against the backdrop of Congress President Rahul Gandhi's interaction with serving and former employees of HAL on the Rafale deal, the state run aerospace company Saturday regretted 'politicisation' of its employees and termed it as a fad and regrettable development that would be detrimental to national security and the organisation. An HAL statement, without making a direct reference to Mr Gandhi, states that the NDA government has extended full-fledged support (to HAL), having placed supply orders of over Rs 27,340 core during the 2014-18 period by recognising its premier position. Towards improvement and up gradation of infrastructure, including ramping up of production facilities, funding to the tune of Rs 7,800 core was sanctioned during the period, it said.
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